Wealth Gap Rises as the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer, INSTAT Says

TIRANA, October 31

The gap between the rich and the poor is becoming wider. The Household Budget Survey 2016 released by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) on Monday confirms this trend. Wealth is growing among the rich and the poor are getting poorer.
INSAT’s data confirm that a household with an average size of 3.7 members spends an average of Lek 73,143 per month. Meanwhile, the monthly average personal consumer expenses are Lek 19,591.
According to the findings of the survey, over 90% of households spend 78.3percent of the total consume value. Meanwhile, 10percent of households spend 21.7 percent of monthly consume.
This means that the average consumer expenditures of the ten percent of households with higher expenses are 2.5 times higher compared to the 90percent of poor households.
Household average consumer expenditures per capita showed the same trend of higher expenses for both strata. Thus, inequality between the rich and the poor in 2016 increased to 3.5 percent while in 2015 it was 3.3 percent.
The data show Albanian households spent more on food and non-alcoholic beverages, power and water supply and rent, utensils, furniture and maintenance, clothing and footwear, restaurants and hotels, transportation, entertainment and education, and alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
However, household expenditures marked a decline compared to 2015.

News Source/Photo Credit: INSTAT